


Contrapposto

by sunryder



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-19
Updated: 2012-04-19
Packaged: 2017-11-03 22:25:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/386643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunryder/pseuds/sunryder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Steve met Tony, neither one of them was using their real names. </p><p>Done for the Cap_Ironman Reverse Bang over on LJ, with art done by the fabulous beeceexx at http://beeceexx.livejournal.com/3766.html</p>
            </blockquote>





	Contrapposto

**Author's Note:**

> Contrapposto: Classical term for a figure as it changes from rest, to running.

The first time Steve met Tony, neither one of them went by their real name. 

Steve had endured the dull monotony of SHIELD as long as he could, spending his mornings folded in behind a cramped desk while scientists interrogated him about 'how he'd been created'. His afternoons were with Thor, destroying everything in Steve's gym in their mutual irritation before Steve was sent back to his windowless cage of a room to be plagued with dreams of open air and Bucky's laugh. Thor dealt with the confinement by breaking out of SHIELD custody at least once a week and running off to see Jane -- and since Steve knew all too well the painful ache that came from being kept from seeing your girl, he covered for them.

Thor was not a subtle man, and soon enough he couldn't stomach watching Steve fade away under florescent lights, and dragged Steve out of SHIELD with him, abiding by Steve's request and depositing him gently at the edge of Central Park. 

Steve spent the next two hours running mile after mile, cutting across the lawns, darting between trees, (and occasionally stopping a crime and leaving the perpetrator tied up for the police to collect later), until he retreated to a bar that looked like it wouldn't care that Steve was sweaty and underdressed. Halfway through his first beer a man slid up next to Steve and turned to him with a bright smile that didn't match his words while he said, "Hey, I'm gonna sit here and talk to you like we're friends so that woman at the other end of the bar won't try and hit on me."

Steve glanced around the man's shoulder at the frankly stunning woman who was staring at him like he was her last meal. Steve raised an eyebrow and the man in front of him laughed, "Trust me, she's not worth it."

Steve just shrugged and signaled the bartender to bring another round before he said, "I'd shake your hand, but since we're supposed to be friends and your girl hasn't stopped glaring at me since you walked over here, I'm Steve."

The man just stared at Steve for a long moment, as if he was expecting something more from him. He smirked a little and replied, "I'm Tony," pausing again like that was supposed to trigger a realization. 

"Nice to meet you, Tony."

Tony took a long pull on his beer, staring at Steve with a slightly baffled expression before he said, "So, have you been out of the country?"

Steve paused just a moment before he decided that was as good an explanation as any, "Yes."

"Oh." Tony brightened up considerably, "Where?"

Steve cleared his throat a little roughly, trying to remember the lessons on lying Bucky had given him a lifetime ago. "I've been in the hospital."

"Abroad? That doesn't make…" Tony gave Steve a long look up and down, taking in details that Steve was almost sure he shouldn't be letting the man take in before he replied "You're a soldier."

Steve grunted an affirmative into his beer, not really willing to talk about it. "So you have no idea who I am." Tony pressed.

"Am I supposed to?" Steve replied a little testily. 

"No actually," Tony smiled, "it's a relief."

Steve knew the tired look in Tony's eyes, knew it because he'd seen it in his own mirror too many times over the last months, someone hunted and unhappy in their own skin and Steve couldn't quite stop his commiserating smile. Tony stared at him like he was getting the true measure of Steve before calmly stating, "I'm in town until Sunday afternoon."

"That's… nice?"

"I think you should spend the weekend with me."

Steve blushed crimson, "Oh, I don't-"

"I don't mean that." Tony cut in, not bothering to hide his smile at Steve's blush. "I just, I'm not in the mood to be in my own head. Come to my hotel room, watch movies with me, or swim in the pool, order room service. Just be another person." Another person who didn't know why Tony looked tired and didn't expect him to be anything other than what he was.

At the moment Steve didn't know, and for the rest of his life wouldn't ever really understand, what made him smile at Tony and say yes. 

The next three days were full of Tony asking 'Hey, have you ever-?' and declaring it an abomination when Steve said no. Room service brought food Steve had never tasted from a lifetime in the Depression, and Tony called up movies on the obscenely large television in his penthouse suite. And sometimes they just sat on the balcony, Tony frantically typing something out on one of his devices and Steve just breathing in the sun. They slept pressed together at night, never really talking about how it was the first time in recent memory either of them had slept in peace.

On Sunday afternoon Tony didn't press, just let Steve gather up his things and offered to call a car to take him home, if that's what he wanted. "Or," Tony offered, "you could come back to California with me." Steve smiled sadly and pressed a gentle kiss to Tony's lips before he walked out of the suite and back to SHIELD.

Steve refused to tell the furious Agents where he'd been, not at all remorseful that they'd been scouring the city with thoroughly illegal means trying to find him.

(Thor just gave him a broad grin and said Steve looked like he'd found his way.)

It was a month later when the Avengers Initiative was fully off the ground that Steve finally got to meet Tony Stark. The agents had done a brilliant job keeping Steve away from anyone they didn't want influencing him (aka: Tony) and done an even better job of telling Steve all sorts of stories about the man and his flaws, and why they waned someone else to be Iron Man while they pumped Tony for ideas. Influencing Steve would've worked better if someone along the way hadn't shown him a picture of Tony -- battered and a little manic straight after his kidnapping -- because from the moment Steve recognized those eyes and the fake smile he put on to make people think he was okay, no amount of subterfuge would break Steve from his quiet, steady support.

Steve met Tony for the second time when Tony roamed into an SHIELD meeting ten minutes late. Everyone stilled at Tony's arrival, not bothering to constrain their general irritation at his existence. Tony glanced around the room with a disdainful grin of his own before his eyes lit on Steve, and the whole world stopped.

Tony slowly drew off his sunglasses while Fury smirked, "Captain Rogers, allow me to introduce Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man. Tony, let me introduce Captain Steven Rogers, also known as Captain America."

Tony just stared at Steve, ignoring everything else until Steve smiled at him, stepping around the table and stretching out his hand, "It's nice to see you, Tony." 

Tony grinned, fierce and sneaky in a way that obviously set Fury on edge and replied, "You too Steve."

XXXXX

The first time Steve saw Tony was six months to the day after the Avengers first came together. Their villain of the week had excreted some jelly that managed to coat every inch of Tony's armor while artfully dodging everyone else. Tony had jetted back the mansion in a temper and dropped into some of the backyard's dense foliage rather than going straight to his lab. When the rest of the Avengers made it back Steve heaved a sigh and grabbed his bag of essential-for-dealing-with-Tony-in-a-terrible-mood items and followed him into the yard without bothering to change out of his uniform. 

He'd expected Tony to have some sort of extra entrance from the middle of the grounds, something leading to a technological mudroom where Tony could clean himself off first. 

But instead Steve found Tony in a grove of trees and bushes, safely closed off in a curtain of privacy while he shed his armor like scales.

Steve froze at the sight of Tony stripped to his waist, armor broken down to its component pieces and dropped around Tony like leaves. Tony stretched up working out a kink between his shoulders then bent over at the waist working on one of the clasps at his hips. Steve tried to call out, he really did, but Tony managed to unlock the metal plates around his hips and dropped them to the ground with a thump, revealing the smooth, pert line of Tony's ass. 

Somewhere in the back of his mind Steve knew that Tony wasn't exactly young, something that plenty of the more active heroes liked to tease him for, but Steve had never really noticed it before. Tony was lively and unstoppable to the point where Steve's instinct was to think Tony was barely any older than him. And apparently Tony's body matched his spirit. 

Steve zoned out, just staring at the the line of Tony in contrapposto, his back arched impossibly while he leaned down to undo his raised boot. It was the sort of moment of too beautiful realism that a sculptor would want to capture in stone, and Steve was so caught up in watching Tony move unimpeded by clothes or armor, he dropped his shield.

Tony jumped at the clang, twisting around and disrupting the stillness of the moment and Steve held up his hands quickly saying, "Stop, stop."

"Stop?" Tony shouted, "You're the one-"

"No, no, no, turn back around." 

There was something too intent about the way Steve was talking that made Tony turn back, confused. Steve reached into the bag he'd brought out to Tony, blindly riffling through until he pulled out the sketchbook he always had with him and dropped down onto the closest rock. Steve put the pencil to paper and looked up, expecting Tony to be back at his armor. But instead, Tony was frozen, arms uncomfortably stiff at his sides like he'd been caught creeping around a house at midnight. "Go back to what you were doing."

Tony paused, slowly reaching for his calf, only to pop back up the moment he realized his hips were jutting back to show off his behind. "Uh, Steve… what're we doing here?" 

Steve cocked his head to the side and said like it was obvious, "You're taking off your armor and I'm sketching it."

"Yeah, Steve, I'm pretty sure there's a subtext here that you're not quite getting."

Steve looked down at his paper in confusion, "All I've got down is your spine."

"What?"

"Subtext comes later in the process, right now I'm just sketching things out, making sure the proportions are right." Steve replied innocently.

Tony looked heavenward, desperately trying to bottle up the heat of Steve just staring at him unperturbed, taking in every detail with that almost holy expression but still not leering at him. "Steve." Tony groaned and Steve looked up again confused. 

"You can go back to fiddling with your armor, Tony. You don't have to try and pose for me or anything."

"Not really going for a pose here, Steve."

"Then why are you so tense? You were so loose before, and the curve of your spine, it was perfect."

Tony just blinked, trying to come up with a way to respond to such sincere and strange praise. "It… what?"

Steve looked up from the paper again and gestured the arc of Tony's back while he said, "The line of you, it was perfect. You were curled up and off balance in that moment of stillness right before everything explodes into motion again. I've always liked those moments." Tony furrowed his brow, still completely confused and Steve hopped to his feet, flipping through the pages of his sketchbook while he stepped up to Tony, completely unphased by Tony's mostly nudity. 

"See, like here." The sketch was of Hawkeye in profile, bow drawn, string pulled back so far it looked like Steve had him captured the moment before the bow was about to snap in two from the pressure. "This is the breath right before Hawkeye lets the arrow go, and you can feel all the tension straining to release with the arrow."

Tony just stared at the page, taking in the details, the grooves in Hawkeye's forearm from clenching his bow, and the slightly awkward bend to his leg that Tony knew meant Hawkeye was going to drop into a roll the second he released that arrow. The picture was stunning and Tony couldn't quite breathe. He knew Steve had been an artist before he joined up in the 40s, it was something every little boy in America knew (and part of the reason Tony and most little boys ever signed up for art class). But when Tony grew up he'd assumed the story was nothing more than a publicity stunt by the military, and that Steve had been an artist like most people were musicians: something to do when there was free time and tell girls about on dates. But this, this was art, and Tony couldn't believe it.

Steve took Tony's quiet to mean he didn't get the point and Steve flipped to the next page. "Or there's this one of Thor. See how he's twisted all the way around like a spring, even his arms out to the side to get more motion? He's at that climax moment before he launches his hammer." This one was even better, the motion perfect and the sunlight coming from behind Thor, making his hammer shine, his cape spread out like wings, and the air around him glow like a halo. 

Tony didn't respond again and Steve asked, "Is this making any sense?"

Tony ignored the question and started flipping through the pages, images of Hulk crouched just before he leapt, Natasha at the high point of a leap, Coulson with his hand floating just above his gun before he went to shoot. "Steven Rogers, how in the hell have you not shown this to anyone before?"

"What makes you think I haven't?"

"Because I want to take this and show it to everyone in the house and then frame them." 

Steve blushed and tried to pull the sketches back out of Tony's hands, but Tony twisted around, putting his body in between Steve and the book, still flipping through. "Seriously, Steve! Where in the hell did this come from?"

Steve tried to duck around Tony while still being gentle enough with the man, "I'm an artist Tony, you knew that!"

Tony kept going through the pages, coming to a stop on one of himself. Tony was sprawled out at his desk, staring silently at the computer screens in front of him. Everything about the moment could be mistaken for Tony just staring aimlessly if it wasn't for the few details that told the viewer inspiration had just teased Tony and was a hair's breadth away from striking him full on. Tony's brow was furrowed ever so slightly, the corners of his eyes crinkled, and his hand pulled just from drumming on his lips while everything about him paused and the path before him became clear. Tony had never seen himself in a moment of inspiration, but he could tell that if the drawing had been done a single frame later he would've been lunging forward to frantically add new data. 

Steve took advantage of Tony's staring and pulled the sketchbook out of his hands, expecting Tony to come after it. Instead Tony very slowly turned, unbridled awe in his eyes, and for the first time realized how close Steve was. "Steven." Tony breathed, deep and throaty. "How, I mean, where?"

Steve blushed but didn't pull back, "I, I like watching you work. You're always moving, practically vibrating with ideas and inspiration, and.. and it's beautiful. You're beautiful."

"And today?"

Steve gave him a tiny, sheepish grin, "The light on you was perfect. You were lit up, warm and glowing in this circle of sunlight."

Tony leaned forward, brushing his bare chest against Steve's suit. It was that moment when Steve seemed to finally realized that he was crowding Steve after making the man strip down to nothing but his metal boots. There was moment there, a brief instant when Steve had the chance to stumble back or press forward. 

Steve slowly lifted his hands, like he was nervous he was about scaring Tony off, and ran his fingertips down Tony's bare biceps, gently skimming the skin rather than gripping Tony with aggression. Tony felt like Steve was tracing him, covering all the lines that made up Tony so he could put them down on paper later. Tony bit back the desire to tell Steve he didn't have to be so delicate with him, giving Steve a moment to adjust. After several long minutes of Steve soaking the feel of Tony's skin in through his fingertips Steve finally sighed and dropped his head to Tony's shoulder, and they both knew it wasn't the moment either wanted. 

Tony wrapped his arms around Steve's shoulders, burying a hand in Steve's hair. They hadn't talked about this thing burning between them, hadn't really stoked it, just letting it grow under its own time. They'd met one another on the heels of Tony trying to put his crumbling life back together after imminent death from his own arc reactor and Steve just waking up in the distant future where everything he knew was gone, neither experience making for balanced personalities. They both muddled through, saving the world and leaning on one another, but Steve still woke up at night with panic attacks about waking up to a new world once again, and Tony's near constant worry that someday SHIELD would figure out how to strip him of his armor and give his life to someone else. 

Tony pulled Steve a little closer and murmured, "I know, babe, I know." 

"I'm trying Tony, I'm just…"

"You're not ready yet. I get that."

Steve went unbearably still for a moment, "Are you ready?"

Tony snorted, "Steve, I'm naked and hugging you. If you look down you'll notice that right now I'm primed and ready for anything you've got." Steve pulled back slightly to give Tony an amused look, stalwartly avoiding looked at any other part of Tony's anatomy. "Oh, you meant emotionally?" Tony teased, "Then no." Steve smiled, just like Tony was hoping for and he added, "Though I'm planning on having a very good fantasy about this tonight. And tomorrow. And for a while yet." 

Steve laughed and pulled Tony closer, burying his face in the crook of Tony's shoulder. Tony ran his fingers through the sweaty curls of Steve's hair and let the hero cuddle. "There's no rush. We'll get there."

XXXXX

The first time Steve really knew Tony there was a lull in super-villainy, giving the Avengers the chance to go on vacation and annoy other superhero teams. (T'Challa was making nice with the X-Men, Jan was basking on a beach while Hank stalked bugs, Clint was with Phil doing things no one dared ask about, while Thor had dragged Jane to Asgard, and Natasha had gone along to wreak havoc with Sif and the Warriors Three, leaving Steve and Tony alone at the manor.) 

Tony had music blaring through all the mansion's speakers while he worked on projects and Steve filled page after page with sketches of Tony. The break was good, giving them all a little time to deal with unexpected troubles of being a superhero team. Steve looked back almost fondly on the time when his greatest concerns were being being chased down by souped up members of HYDRA, because recently the most troubling aspects of his life had been devoted fans. 

Each of the Avengers had their own troubling devotees, but Tony's were worst than most. Tony had grown up in the spotlight and had people who'd devoted most of their adult lives to trailing him as he moved about the city. Some days they even proved more threatening than the villains. A few weeks before, Tony had been at a charity benefit and was dosed by a an insane fan who'd slipped into the party. She'd made herself a 'love potion' that had combined with the arc reactor to poison Tony to the point where anyone less than Bruce Banner and Mr. Fantastic wouldn't have been able to save him. Tony had tried to shrug it off, but Steve had spent the next few days sitting at Tony's beside reading article after article on the internet, where commentators likened Tony's near fatal poisoning to half a dozen other murders of celebrities by fans over the last fifty years. 

Steve was willing to admit, he'd been a little difficult to live with after that, especially when Tony seemed like he didn't care at all. He'd taken to staying at Tony's side during all their Avengers celebrity appearances, which Tony didn't really mind because Steve was good company, except for whenever anyone actually tried to talk to Tony, because suddenly Steve devolved from smiles to a hulking wall of glower the refused to allow anyone past. It definitely didn't help things that the second the others had prevailed upon Steve to give Tony some space, he was set upon by a gaggle of beautiful women who seemed restore Tony's faith in the female gender. The whole situation probably would've been just fine if it wasn't for one of the women pressing herself against Tony's chest and plastering a wet, red kiss to Tony's stunned lips. Tony called up the security footage later and watched Steve's reaction in slow motion again and again, punishing himself by watching how Steve's face crumpled at the sight of Tony already with someone else before Steve curled in on himself to creep out of the room unnoticed. 

Tony had spent five minutes with the women, trying to extricate himself while he waited for Steve to come swooping back in, then the next half an hour in front of the security cameras preparing for the worst. When he'd finally roamed back into his room, Steve had been there, laying tight and unhappy under the covers of Tony's bed. "Babe?" Tony asked, gently.

Steve just stared up at the ceiling and muttered, "She was very pretty, Tony."

Tony sighed and sat down next to Steve, "Steve, people hit on me. It's what they do. I smile politely and get out the situation, but unless you want me to start hitting women who aren't villains, it's the best I've got." 

Steve kept his eyes focused above him, "You kissed her, Tony."

"Babe, she kissed me. I pushed her off, but you were gone by that point."

Steve paused before he muttered, "Security cameras."

"You're the one who taught me reconnaissance is a good thing."

The barest of grins flashed across Steve's face, "Why is it you never prepare except when you're dealing with me?"

"You're the only one that matters."

Things had still been tense after that, not enough to be a fight, but enough that Steve put his foot down with SHIELD and put the Avengers all on vacation. Days alone with Tony had been enough to put Steve back on center, calming his worry that someday Tony would decide he was done waiting and wanted something more than a broken soldier. (Anyone who knew the two of them would've thought that Tony, with his drinking and womanizing, would be the one to have issues with faith, not Captain America.)

Steve looked up from his sketchbook to see Tony gently smiling at him instead of his work. "What?"

Tony grinned and went back to the tech he had spilled open in front of him, not bothering to answer. Steve tucked his pencil behind his ear and leaned back, taking the chance to just look at Tony rather than study him. There were little lines at Tony's eyes, one of Tony's few concessions to his age, and flecks of grey in his hair from hard living in his younger years (though Tony didn't take things much easier now that he was older). But despite all the marks on Tony's body and soul that told of the terrible things Tony had gone through in his life, he was still gentle, in his own way. Tony had womanized to prove to himself that he was alive, that there was something good worth living for, and when he found the Avengers they became that good. 

Tony glanced up at the lack of pencil scratching on paper, "What's up, babe?"

Steve shook his head, and Tony leaned back in his chair, ignoring the computer for now. "No, that was your 'making a full proof battle plan' face. What's up?"

"I don't see that smile often enough for me to put it on paper."

"What smile?"

"That one you were doing before. The one, the one that says you'd do anything for me."

Tony rolled his eyes and went back to the computer, "Hate to break it to you babe, but I look at you like that all the time."

Steve paused while Tony went back to his typing, contemplating for a moment before he murmured, "You do, don't you." 

Tony glanced up, "Hmm?"

Steve shook his head and set aside the sketchbook and pencil, slowly making his way over to Tony. Tony leaned back and watched Steve hesitantly come, biting his red bottom lip between his teeth like he was unsure about something. (There were times Tony forgot that Steve had only had one relationship before, and that been nothing but scattered moments during a war. Not that Tony was allowed to claim much more experience.)

Tony didn't ask when Steve pushed his chair back slightly and settled himself in Tony's lap, his thighs braced around Tony's hips and Tony's hands on his waist. "Babe?" Tony asked gently, enough experience with fussy experiments to know something important was happening. 

"You love me."

"From the moment you smiled at me back at the bar."

"But you let me leave the hotel without even getting my last name."

"I had your photo from the security feed and Rhodey's password to the DOD mainframe."

"So you could look me up again when you wanted another weekend?"

Tony pulled Steve a little closer, trying to make him understand, "Babe, when I met you I was a month out from thinking I was slowly killing myself and dealing with SHIELD all but telling me they wanted me dead so they could steal the armor from my estate. I wasn't in the place to be keeping you, no matter how much I would've liked to. You set me back on the road to health, and when I got my head screwed on straight I was going to make Rhodey find your military record and get you transferred to SHIELD."

Steve pressed his forehead against Tony's and said, "You know I love you back." 

"I know, babe. What's got you all tied up in knots?" 

"I love you. And, no matter what happens, even if the world turns on us and we all die tomorrow, you'll still be with me."

Tony, never one for a serious moment, smiled and replied, "Personally I'm hoping that our good deeds for Asgard mean we get to go to Valhalla when we finally kick it." 

Steve smiled, all the tension of the moment draining out at the confirmation that Tony would always be Tony, no matter what they came across. "Anthony Stark, you're the love of my life." Tony smiled, true and genuine and pressed forward to seize Steve's mouth in a kiss, Steve smiled into Tony's lips then pushed him back to finish the speech he didn't realize he'd had prepared since the first time Tony insisted he try something new rather than wither in the old. "I love you, and being with you was worth waking up 70 years in the future." Before Tony could say anything else Steve pressed on, "Tony Stark, I want you to marry me." 

"What?" Tony's voice cracked.

"Anthony Stark, will you marry me?"

Tony's jaw dropped and he just stared. An hour before Steve would've been nervous that the silence meant Tony was coming up with a way to say no, but now Steve knew that he'd always known better. Tony was his, and always would be. "You, want to marry me?"

Never one to talk more than he had to, Steve just replied, "Yes." 

"Seriously?"

"You're the love of my very strange life."

Tony lunged forward and pressed a furious kiss to Steve's mouth, pressing him back against the lip of the desk and almost consuming him. The kiss was intense, but brief, Tony using his leverage to shift Steve up off his lap and onto the desk while Tony dove for his phone. Steve sat there for a moment, open mouthed and shocked while Tony pressed the speed dial and shouted, "Pepper! I'm getting married!" 

Through the pristine connection Steve heard Pepper scream "What?"

"I'm getting married!"

"That's not, I mean, what?"

Tony rolled his eyes at Steve, "It's not that hard, Pep. I'm getting married. Here's the thing: I know none of the Avengers have anything planned for when they get back in three days, so I can just load them all on the quinjet and we can head off to Hawaii for the wedding. But you've got work. So, wanna run off to Hawaii with the Avengers on Monday?"

JARVIS interrupted, "Mr. Stark, the New York City Marriage Bureau requires that you wait 24 hours after receiving the license before the ceremony may take place. I have completed your application online, but I recommend you and your fiancé go to the Bureau this afternoon to complete the process. With a New York marriage license you will also need a New York official to perform the ceremony."

Pepper gave a pained noise, obviously wanting her call to be routed to JARVIS to scold him for contributing to this madness, while Tony just nodded along and Steve tried not to laugh at the AI's rather sadistic sense of humor. "JARVIS!"

"No, he's right Pep."

"JARVIS being wrong wasn't the point of my objection, Tony!"

"Oh. Did you want us to get married in New York?"

"No, Tony." Pepper said, sounding pained.

"California then? Though, I didn't really want to get married anywhere I've lived because I'd like to not get stalked by the paparazzi on my wedding day." 

"Tony! Take a deep breath and tell me what's going on."

"We've been over this Pep, I'm getting married on Monday." Tony pulled the phone away slightly and asked, "Hey Steve, Monday works right?"

Pepper shrieked, "Tony!" 

Tony flinched at the sound, "Whoa, what's wrong?"

"Anthony Edward Stark." Pepper hissed, "Tell me you did not introduce this woman to Steve."

"What woman?"

"The woman you're marrying!"

"Now, that's very close minded of you Pep. Why do you assume I'm marrying a woman?"

Pepper took a deep breath, the kind that meant she was trying not to curse Tony out because technically he was still her employer, and through clenched teeth she replied, "Put Steve on the phone."

Tony handed over the phone with a smirk, "Pep wants to talk to you."

Steve rolled his eyes and wondered for a brief moment how normal people's proposals went. "Hello, Pepper."

"…Steve?" Pepper asked, concern for Steve and wondering what in the hell was going on all wrapped up in her tone. 

"Virginia Potts, Tony and I would be honored if you could sneak out of work for a few days and come to our wedding. Apparently on Monday."

"… apparently?"

"Well, Tony hasn't exactly said 'yes' yet, but I'm assuming from the screaming like a twelve year old girl and the looking up judges on the Marriage Bureau's website trying to find someone he thinks would be fun to have at the ceremony that he's saying yes."

There was dead silence on Pepper's end of the line, long enough that Steve prodded, "Pepper?"

"SHIELD has a Chaplain." She finally stumbled out.

"Pepper?"

"Agent Harper is the SHIELD Chaplain. Tony's met him, and he likes him, I just don't think he noticed Harper's a chaplain."

Steve smiled, "Thanks Pepper, I'll tell Tony."

"Tell me what?" Tony asked, not turning away from his search.

"Agent Harper is a Chaplain."

Tony paused, trying to conjure up the memory of the agent before he smirked, "Oh that would be perfect. We need to call him. And we need to set up a hotel. And get someone to sub for a us for a few more days. And get tuxes made." Tony plucked the phone out of Steve's hand and said, "Can't talk, Pep. Got a wedding to plan." And closed the phone with a snap before he grabbed Steve's hand and hauled him off the desk and toward the stairs.

"Hey, JARVIS-"

"I have informed Signore Reginald that you are on your way for an emergency fitting. He disparaged you and several generations of Starks in Italian until I informed him you would also be commissioning a suit for Captain America. He has closed his shop and awaits your arrival with a level of excitement usually reserved for the World Cup."

XXXXX

The morning after Steve really felt Tony for the first time he woke slowly, basking in the warm morning light that was coming in with the breeze through the open glass doors of their lanai. Steve had his head cushioned on Tony's chest, taking in the slow steady pulse of Tony's heartbeat in time with waves outside. Steve shifted quietly and pressed a kiss to Tony's temple before he slithered out from under the covers. 

Tony had dragged Steve along behind him for the last three days, bounding from one task to the next while Steve stood silent and intimidating behind him to grease the way so Tony's excitement never had to fade in the face of realism. (He figured it was the least he could do since he had no idea what Tony was doing.) There were suits, and bungalows, and calling the X-Men to sub for them a little longer (Xavier sounded sad when he wished them a happy life together, but Steve was too happy and Tony too wired to pay attention), and managing to lure all their favorite past Avengers along with all the present Avengers onto a quinjet without tipping off SHIELD to what was up. 

They'd arrived in the morning and Tony had given everyone the afternoon to nap while he buzzed about hyped up on coffee, getting their wedding dinner finalized and making preparations for their honeymoon house up the beach from where everyone else was staying. 

Steve had tried to talk Tony into taking a nap with him, but Tony's response had been to smash Steve's back into a wall and give him a ferocious kiss before pulling back to whisper, "If I stop moving, I'm taking you to bed and we're not coming out, even for a wedding." Steve had blushed but let Tony walk away, hiding the fact that he hadn't even been aware that Tony was trying to wait and let Steve has much tradition as he could.

Captain America and Iron Man had gotten married on a white sand beach surrounded by their closest friends before they retreated to the cabin up the beach where Tony finally got to have his way with Steve. 

Several times. 

Now Steve crept out onto the warm sand and down to where the waves met the shore. He would've said yesterday that he'd seen the ocean before, but New York harbor wasn't quite the same thing as Hawaii. Steve stood at the point in between the water and the shore, just letting it lap at his toes while he took in the perfect peace of the moment. Soon Jan would roam up the beach, just to make Tony curse at her for interrupting and she'd drag them back down to breakfast with the team. Thor would ask inappropriate questions that would make Tony laugh, Peter would blush at the thought of Steve ever having sex with someone, and eventually Storm would give in to Tony's pleading looks and make it rain, just so Tony could haul Steve back to their bungalow.

But for this moment, there was peace, and a life entirely new. 

"Now, I'm new at this, but I've been told you're not supposed to wake up alone on the first day of your marriage."

Steve smiled and reached behind him to pull a still sleep warm Tony into his arms. "The morning was too perfect to spend it in bed."

"I chose to ignore that you think spending the morning wrapped around me isn't perfect."

Steve twisted the side and pressed a kiss to Tony's temple. "I knew you'd find me."

Tony laughed, "Well it's not like there's a lot of places you're gonna go in your boxers, babe."

Steve turned around in Tony's arms, wrapping his husband up in his embrace and whispered in his ear, "No Tony, I knew you'd find me."

Tony pressed a gentle kiss to Steve's lips and said, "Come back to bed, babe."

Steve looked down at Tony for a moment, paused in that moment between the ocean and land, and he stepped forward into Tony. "Let's."


End file.
